At least 14 Israelis were killed and more than 100 injured by a Palestinian suicide bomber at a pizza restaurant at the busiest intersection in Jerusalem yesterday. This is one of the worst such attacks in 10 months of relentless Intifada violence. Several of the dead were children and four more children were among those fighting for their lives last night.
A few hours after the bombing, a teenage Israeli girl was shot dead by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank.
Early today Israeli police officers and special forces entered and closed the offices of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in east Jerusalem.
Responsibility was claimed by the militant Islamic group Hamas, which termed it a revenge attack for the recent Israeli assassinations of several of its activists; another group, Islamic Jihad, had earlier named one of its militants as the bombers, fuelling concern in Israel that a second suicide bombing might be imminent.
Hundreds of Palestinians participated in a march in the West Bank town of Ramallah last night to celebrate the bombing.
The Israeli government said it held the Palestinian Authority to blame, asserting that the bomber had been dispatched by one of seven Islamic radicals whom it had recently pleaded with the Palestinian Authority to arrest.
Following a telephone call from the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, Mr Arafat is sued a statement denouncing the attack. He urged Israel to join him in an immediate and "comprehensive ceasefire" and a return to the negotiating process. Israeli officials reacted derisively, asserting that Mr Araf at was doing nothing to prevent further bombings.
Mr Powell urged Mr Arafat to "find the perpetrators and bring them to justice" and called on both sides to do everything they could to reduce the violence.
Israeli cabinet ministers and security chiefs were meeting in emergency session last night. Ministers seemed divided on how to respond to the blast - some calling for an all-out confrontation with the Palestinian Authority, others suggesting that Israel had nothing to gain from such an assault.
"We are in a war," said Jerusalem's mayor, Mr Ehud Olmert, speaking as demonstrators outside the shell of the blown-up restaurant behind him chanted "Death to the Arabs". He added that Israel must not respond "with indiscriminate fire. We must not hurt civilians, but we will reach those who are carrying out the attacks and those who are sending them-in their houses, their beds, their cars."
Anticipating a harsh response to the bombing, the worst since 21 Israelis were killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv two months ago, the Palestinian Authority declared a state of emergency, evacuated installations, and announced that personal protection for Mr Arafat was being stepped up.
Mr Arafat's aides firmly rejected Israel's claim that the authority bore responsibility. Ms Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian spokeswoman, castigated Israeli Prime Minister's recently escalated policy of assassinating alleged members of the Intifada, in the course of which, she no ted, innocent Palestinians were also killed. The Palestinian Authority "can't become the security agents of Israel when they can't protect their own people."
A Hamas spokesman, Mr Ab del Aziz Rantisi, said if they wanted to be safe, the citizens of Israel "should go back to where they came from - Poland, the United States of America".
The bombing occurred at about 2 p.m. in the Sbarro restaurant on the corner of Jaffa and King George streets and caused heavy loss of life because of the lunchtime crowds and because the device included nails for maximum impact.
The restaurant had huge plate glass windows, which shattered and sent glass slivers across the room and into the crowded streets outside.
Even after most of the dead and injured had been evacuated, the scene was horrifying, with pools of blood inside the restaurant, tiles and wires hanging from the shattered ceiling, and rescue workers scraping blood and gore from the walls and from two push-chairs.